Standing Madonna with Child

Nardo di Cione's Standing Madonna with Child, painted around 1350, presents the Virgin in the less common standing format that emphasizes her accessibility and maternal tenderness over the regal formality of the enthroned Maestà type. Nardo was a central figure in the Florentine painting workshop dominated by his brother Andrea (Orcagna), contributing to major fresco cycles and panel paintings throughout the city. The panel at the Minneapolis Institute of Art reflects the Florentine Gothic approach to Marian imagery in the sober, monumental years following the Black Death.

Egg tempera and gold ground on panel with the solid, volumetric figure modelling characteristic of the Orcagna workshop. The standing Virgin format allows for a more intimate scale and naturalistic drapery arrangement than the formal enthroned type, rendered with careful tonal gradation.